Book Blogs & Friends

October 19, 2006

100 already?

I imagine that many of you know more about me than some of my friends do. But to keep up with a blogging tradition I have seen on other blogs, I thought I would share 100 things that you might not know about me in celebration of my 100th post. Some will be funny and some might surprise you.

One more thing before I start the list. Do you want to win some cool things? I am going to draw a name next Thursday from the comments on this post. The winner will receive everything in the photo below. Feeling lucky?

A purple gingham apron, a vintage pattern, some small pieces of Fallish fabric, Fall stickers, A gift tag from Barbara Schriber, a Farm Chicks bumper sticker purchased from the Farm Chicks Antique show, a couple pieces of craft paper and a small vile of green German glass glitter. Some of my favorite things for you as a thank you. On to the list...

1) My name Selena means Greek goddess of the moon.

2) I have always felt drawn to the moon because of this.

3) My grandmother Genie and I would talk about our tea party with the fairies at midnight when I was five years old. This is one of my most cherished early memories.

4) My father used to tell me that a 5 foot pitted olive orchard would eat me if I went out at night in our farm. I think it worked as I hated going out at night. He would make a funny face and sound to go with this.

5) I first earned money by "suckering" olive trees and picking olives.

6) We had a pomegranate tree on our farm that I would live at each Autumn. It is still my favorite fruit and one of my favorite reasons I love fall so much.

7) My maiden name is Selena Greenwich. I didn't like my last name because of the brutal teasing from my classmates. Originally the name was Russian and spelled something like Grenevich.

8) When my grandfather escaped from Russia and across Siberia and into China, he worked for 2 years in order to save enough money to come to America by ship. He arrived in Seattle where the US government made him change his name to Greenwich (pronounced Green Which) so he would sound American. We won't mention the thick Russian accent my grandfather had.

9) I grew up learning a few words of Russian but I wished I had learned more.

10) I speak Norwegian although it's a little rough. I can manage to ask for a bathroom though.

11) At age 16, I went to Norway as an exchange student for one year.

12) During my year there we went to Russia for a few days.

13) I missed seeing a Russian bear dance due to some very hot looking Russians wanting to show a group of exchange students a night on the town. We behaved but did have a fun evening.

14) One young very nice looking Russian male gave me a USSR flag which I wrapped around my leg under my trousers to sneak out of the country because we were told it was illegal to take a flag out of the country.

15) When I flew home to the US after my year in Norway, I arrived in New York and kissed the parking lot in happiness of being in the US again.

16) My father used to take me to school in an ambulance. He was an EMT.

17) Before I could get my drivers license, I had to drive 1000 miles with my parents. This was probably a really good thing but at the time quite annoying.

18) I got my driver's license the day after I turned 16. The DMV was closed on my birthday.

19) I went to junior college at the College of The Redwoods.

20) At the Arcata theater near the college, I discovered nutritional yeast on popcorn which is still to this day one of my favorite snacks.

21) I had my first cavity filled during my college years. Because I was planning to be an actress I had it filled in with white fillings. This way when I screamed on camera my mouth wouldn't have any silver in it.

22) I never became an actress but did take part in a few plays.

23) I would love to be in a movie or tv series, even as an extra.

24) Despite my children not watching much tv I absolutely love watching tv.

25) I even love the gossip that goes along with it. Not very eco-chic of me but I enjoy it.

26) Hayley Mills is one of my favorite ever actresses.

27) I have seen her film Summer Magic probably 200 times and I know nearly every word of it.

28) I have her autograph that I bought on eBay.

29) I used to wish that I had her accent. Who knew I would marry one instead.

30) When I was in my early 20's I would put on different accents and use them around town.

31) When a friend of mine and I were in Albertsons we would ask in a thick southern accent why virgin oil is called Virgin if it was pressed once.

32) I would usually do English accents at drive-thru fast food restaurants.

33) My first job outside of our farm was at a McDonalds. It was an evil place because the managers all made the workers feel like pond scum. They walked all over us with their annoying "If you lean you can clean, if you talk you can stock." They sat in the lobby eating huge amounts of free food while we worked.

34) I later worked at Taco Bell for a manager that treated the employees like people. That was a fun place to work. It was located in Chico CA.

35) When I was 20 I went to Norway to be an Au Pair.

36) When I returned home I was restless and unsure of what to do. My parents were moving to Washington State and invited me along in the move.

37) They gave me an option of helping me partially pay to go on to a University or with a small down payment on a house.

38) I chose a house of course and we moved to Aberdeen Washington which I later learned wasn't the best place a young 20 year old to move to.

39) My first ever house purchase was a 1919 blue cottage.

40) My first ever pet as an adult was a feral cat that I tamed. She was found at the beach as wild as can be.

41) I needed a job and found one at a cemetery.

42) It was like I was a gardener.

43) Until I got promoted to digging graves. I can still drive a backhoe to this day. I haven't used this skill in nearly 10 years but I think I'd still remember how to run it.

44) The day I was promoted to Cemetery Supervisor (looking after the grounds and crew) 2 men walked out and left their jobs because they couldn't handle working for a woman.

45) I worked there nearly 3 years.

46) In my 2nd year on the job I went to Chicago on vacation in March to see my brother for a week.

47) The day before I left, my current boyfriend broke up with me telling me we had no chemistry.

48) On April 1st I walked through Chicago to go to the Sears Tower.

49) On that morning Dave walked into the same elevator as me.

50) As the elevator climbed to the tallest building in the US, we both fell madly in love with each other.

51) We had two weddings. One in England for paper purposes and one in the Berkeley Marina for emotional purposes a year to the date of meeting.

52) I quit my job three weeks before we married and vowed to never work in a cemetery again. It did nothing for my complexion.

53) I moved to England 10 days after we were married first having stopped in Mexico for our honeymoon.

54) I loved living in England.

55) I had a hard time living in England.

56) To this day I still miss things about England.

57) I was very lonely there and I had trouble finding work. You'd think working in a cemetery could get you into all sorts of jobs. It didn't.

58) I didn't like driving a stick shift with my left hand. I kept hitting the driver's door with my right when I went to grab it and then remembered to grab it with the other hand.

59) We moved to Wales to escape the crowds of Oxfordshire which after Aberdeen felt very crowded.

60) I loved living in Wales and one of my favorite ever places is Tintern Abbey on the river Wye.

61) I was still lonely and went on a tv talk show called Kilroy with the subject of loneliness. Kilroy found it fascinating that I was married and lonely. So did I.

62) I finally found a temp. job and worked in the Newport Police Station typing up police reports.

63) I have never seen such messy and hard to read writing before this job.

64) There wasn't one gun mentioned in all of the reports during my 6 months of working there.

65) I became pregnant and we moved back to England to a town called Swindon.

66) We named our daughter Cerys (pronounced Care-iss ) after the Welsh word for love. Her middle name is Feyth for the Love of Fairies.

67) Dave had a chance to move us to Virginia with his work. I was excited to move back home although we would be were 3000 miles from my parents and 3000 miles from Dave's parents.

68) I wanted to have a natural birth with Keiran and took a Bradley Birth class for 12 weeks.

69) I gave birth to Keiran (Welsh for dark) in the water and was unmedicated.

70) He was born at a Sleep Inn hotel in a jacuzzi tub by a midwife and Dave.

71) A lot of my natural parenting was influenced through a website called Mango Mama's Natural Parenting.

72) One of my favorite meals is a toasted gluten free blueberry waffle with Maple Cream on it.

73) Having Celiac Disease has been one of the most awful things I have experienced. I've been on this diet for nearly 2 years and it has never gotten easier just more boring.

74) Sometimes I day dream that it was a mistake and I can eat everything normal again.

84) I have always wanted to be a writer and now that I am writing daily I feel better about myself in so many ways.

85) I have a goal to finish a non-fiction book by next February in order to go to a writer's conference on Whidbey Island and hopefully meet some publishers.

86) I finished my first book at age 15 which I called Once Upon a Summer. It was 188 pages long. I later found out the title was already taken. I had typed it on an electric typewriter while eating chocolate chip cookies.

87) My great grandmother owned a bookshop called The Studio Bookshop. She sold used books in the 1920's in Berkeley. She was also a writer especially loved writing poetry.

88) I named my eBay store after her shop and used her logo as my logo (above).

89) I have always wanted to have an bricks and mortar 2nd hand Book Store. And a Consignment Store. And an Antique Store....

90) I still think one day I will have a store but I am not sure where.

91) I am 5'1" tall.

92) I used to collect trading cards. I still have my original Charlie's Angels cards. I also collected the entire set for the movie Robin Hood Prince of Thieves when I went through my college Kevin Costner thing. I got over him quite quickly.

93) Maxfield Parrish is one of my favorite artist. I have one of his books that used to sell in my Great Grandmother's shop.

94) I have his entire trading card collection too. It came out in the 90's. Most are still sealed.

96) Sometimes when the sky is the right color I'll mention that it is a Maxfield Parrish sky to Dave.

97) When I was younger I saved a frog's life that was freezing to death on our frozen pond. After I brought him back to life, I kissed him hoping he would turn into a prince.

98) I made three wishes the week before I met him, years later. I wished for love, I wished for an Englishman (my brother witnesses this one) and I wished for a suit (as in work suit that men wore to work) because I was in the heart of Chicago surrounded by good looking men in suits and I had just been dumped by a logger the week before.

99) I met dh 30 minutes after I whispered the last wish.

100) He doesn't remember being a frog when he was younger.

There you have it. A few more facts about Apron Thrift Girl. And I don't think I mentioned thrifting once in this post. That's a first for me. Thank you to everyone who has ever commented or visited my blog. I appreciate and love your enthusiasm, your kindness, your humor and shared interest in thrifting.

Comments

I am feeling lucky! And what an amazingly interesting life!
Do try the GF beers (sorghum or sorghum & rice), New Grist is pretty tasty, and Bard's Tales is supposed to be coming to WA soon, and you can get them by mail order. If you want to eat in restaurants take a trip to Portland or NYC, there are several restaurants that have GF menus. Hawthorne/Corbett fish house, mmm. Risotteria pizza, mmm.

I love your list and reading your blog. #52 - working in a cemetary was not helping your complexion made me laugh. I love the story of how you and Dave met. I met my husband on a blind date and it was very nearly love at first sight.

Quite an interesting life you've led! I'm so glad I was your first bloggy friend!! It's been lovely! Loved reading your list - your story of meeting DH is so sweet - it's like a movie! Congratulations on your 100th post!

So there is love at first sight? It took me 3 years to recognise that D. were the one.. and I thought I were a quick learner! You've had a pretty interesting life so far :) Jeg håper virkelig att du får ett godt liv fremover. (An attempt at Norwegian..)

Hi Selena. Since I delurked at Amy's blog I thought I should delurk at yours, too...not that I'm feeling lucky or anything ;o)
I enjoyed reading about your 100 things just as I've enjoyed your blog since I discovered it a couple of weeks ago. Yes...a couple of weeks...forgive me for not coming out of the dark and introducing myself earlier. I don't have a blog of my own but I've certainly entertained the idea so I could get to know you and your blogging friends a little better...it's been fun. I have to admit that I've never thrifted much but you've really got me thinking about it more and more. The other day when I cleaned out my linen closet I found an old apron that someone gave me and immediately thought of you! Is that weird (I hope you don't think so...I mean you don't even know me)
Anyway...thought I'd say 'hi' and if I'm lucky I'll own another apron (did I mention that purple is my favourite colour?)...LOL.
Thanks for the inspiration and creating such a fun blog to amuse me when I should be sleeping...hehe.
Marianne

Hi - Just de-lurking to say I really enjoy your blog. I'm an avid thrifter myself and really enjoy reading about your fabulous finds. What a wonderful way you met your husband, I met my partner in similar circumstances. It was the classic case of our eyes meeting across a crowded room and it really was love at first sight (something I thought was a load of rubbish until it happened to me). I live in the UK so enjoy hearing about the time you spent living here (I also spotted the enormous jar of Marmite in your basement larder - sure sign of a Brit in the house). Looking forward to your next 100 posts.

congrats, selena!
my younger sister used to be bugged by 'summer magic' simply because there was a brunette, a blonde, and a redhead in the same family.
i think you know what color hair my kids have: one of each! now i feel a little bond with that movie. :)

When I first saw how long this post was, I thought "oooooh no!! I hate reading! Where are all the photos?" but after having read the entire thing, I'm really glad that I did so. Everything was VERY interesting. You lived in the US and had olive and pomegranite tress? That's just fabulous! I've never seen a pomegranite tree before. I feel a close connection to them though, since my magical name is Persephone (and my business name). Also, as soon as I finished reading the post, a faery flew away. I saw her sparkle, that's how I knew she was here.

you're a believer. What is the pronunciation of your daughter's middle name?

It was great reading your 100 things about Selena.
I think we could be related,my grandmother and I used to have tea parties and she would call up the fairies who left little gifts for me. You sparked that great memory for me this morning.
Thanks so much and here's to the next 100 posts by Selena.

I sooo get you!
I too dance in the grocery stores when a great song comes on... and my husband loves it! (saw your comment on another blog)
We are blessed!
So fun getting to know you... here's to a hundred more!

I must say, though, that it breaks my heart that you are struggling with celiac disease so much. Having my wheat allergy diagnosed was one of the biggest blessings of my life. Not being sick like that anymore is awesome.

What an amazing adventure you have had! Great post~the way you met our dh is the most romantic stories I have ever heard, and to think that it really happened that way amazes me...on an elevator....by chance!!! Thanks for sharing and being such a friendly blogger-not to mention congratulations on your happy 100th.